Monday Musings

I love the camaraderie and community that has developed among us, even though most of us haven't met in real life. I can't tell you how many times my eyes welled with tears as I read your comments after I shared about Kevin's trip back to TC. Diane sent me this song this morning, and it is one that I've loved for a long time - in fact, I sent it to Kev several years ago. It says what all of you have been saying to me this week.

Somebodys Praying Me Through - Allen Asbury

You are praying me through and we are all praying Kevin through. Thank you.

Now - a little update of other things in the life of Grandma Dawn. My camera battery died and I missed several photo ops last week. DC picked one up for me at a battery store 15 miles away, because no store in our town carries it. But Kristen took pictures on her camera and sent them to me.

Thursday was Crazy Hair Day at school. Care Bear and her cousin were fixed up by her aunt. I cropped most of her cousin out, because of necessity, but you can get an idea of the hair madness.



As Grandpa DC said when he saw the next two pictures, learning something new can be tough. The babes don't like to be fed any more. They want to do it themselves. Unfortunately, they haven't quite mastered the art of feeding themselves yet. But they're trying!





It's been a great week-end of celebration of what Jesus did for us. For the past seven years, our church has done what we call "Easter Marketplace" in the parking lot and gym. We set up a huge tent with booths representing things that might have been found in Jerusalem - the kids get to make crafts, sample foods, braid a rope, make a scroll, listen to a story. They can also pet some goats, donkeys, sheep. Then there's a huge egg hunt in the gym - 4,000 plastic eggs were filled by the Wednesday morning coffee group.

Of the seven years, we've only had one really nice, warm day. But it never seems to keep the neighborhood people away - it is a tremendous outreach and we always have an opportunity to minister to new folks because of this introduction to our church. The local paper actually showed up this year - Feisty is the cutie on the far right with the hot pink coat.

Kristen caught this one on her phone while Emma and I were listening to the story.

I decided to invite the big girls over to spend the night so we could make these great Easter cookies - a friend sent me the recipe in an e-mail. It's a great project that tells the story of Easter with symbolism as you mix the cookies and read scripture along the way. The ultimate goal is to get up on Easter morning to find a hollow meringue cup to signify the empty tomb. Unfortunately, the egg whites didn't stiffen (long story), so we weren't able to complete the project.

At that point, Care Bear decided that since the reason she was there was not working out, she wanted to go home. The Easter bunny was on his/her way to our house (in fact, had come and the baskets were hiding in Grandpa's truck), so I didn't really want to take them home at that late hour. I had to do a quick diversion, so told them we needed to set the table for dinner. Care Bear immediately realized she needed to make place cards - and the disaster was averted.

As Care Bear made the place cards, Feisty decorated the table. I would have had things in the center, but she did a very creative job -





Note the Hershey's kisses at a few spots - these have been in a candy dish since Christmas.


Care Bear woke up at 5:45, discovering that the bunny did indeed know where they were staying, and not only that, he/she knows the true meaning of Easter and brought them chocolate crosses instead of bunnies! We all got our duds on and headed to 7:30 breakfast at church.

Sunday School and worship were wonderful. Then it was back to Grandma's for dinner with 11 of us - a smaller crowd than normal, but enough for me. I was tired already. DC grilled a delicious pork tenderloin, I fixed green bean almonde (delicious), and everyone else brought yummy stuff to fill out the menu.

The babies were way too keyed up to nap, and enjoyed sitting with the rest of us and eating scalloped potatoes. I was very glad I had put a plastic tablecloth under their seats! The egg hunt had to be in the house, because it was cold and rainy outside.

Getting pictures of the finery was challenging, to say the least. Well, you get the idea - maybe.

Note the priceless candy necklace.

The day ended perfectly with an awesome baptismal service. The promise of new life in Christ just gives us oldies a shot of spiritual adrenalin that we need.

I just have to finish with this rather disgusting update - IT'S BAAAAACK!!! Bigger and worse than ever --- YUCK!

Now what do you think I should do??? DC tried to get me to let him do the old Bible remedy - the one where you smash it with the Bible. No, thanks!

Have a wonderful week!